


Me/Him

by eerian_sadow



Series: Final Fantasy Exchange pieces [1]
Category: Final Fantasy X & Final Fantasy X-2
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Final Fantasy Exchange, Post-Canon, canon character resurrection, doink exchange, final fantasy exchange 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 03:37:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1673237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tidus is trying to adjust to life, but he feels like he can't escape the specter of Shuyin hanging over his head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Me/Him

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beltsquid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beltsquid/gifts).



> Dear beltsquid, i tried to hit all the points in your request, but Tidus veered off in this direction. Please forgive my inability to reign him in! (And I hope it's still to your tastes!)

Tidus was holding the sphere when she walked into the room. The chest she'd kept it tucked away in was open and a few of her books were on the floor next to him. He'd clearly been looking for something to occupy his time while they flew--a problem she remembered acutely from their Journey--and had stumbled across the sphere instead.

"Are you okay?" Yuna asked softly.

"I didn't watch it," the blond man replied, voice equally soft. "So, I guess so. I mean, I'm not sure. It's crazy to be scared of something so small, right?"

"It's not small," the High Summoner said, sitting down beside him. "It led me back to you, after all. Do you want to watch it?"

"I don't know," Tidus replied.

"Scared I'll leave you and run off on another adventure?"

"What?!" He looked at her agast. "NO!"

"Then what are you afraid of? It's just a sphere recording." Yuna nudged her lover gently. "I promise, it doesn't bite."

"I guess... What if I don't like what I see? What if this Shuyin is better than me?"

"I met him, you know. In the Farplane. He wasn't all that different from you."

"You met him? Oh great, no pressure there." The blitzball player frowned.

"I met him, but he's not here." She reached out and took his hand in hers. "He's with Lenne on the Farplane and you're here with me. It's not a competition, you know?"

"It feels like it." He squeezed her hand tightly.

"It shouldn't. I never went looking for Shuyin. I was looking for you." Yuna rested her head on Tidus' shoulder. "Even when I found him and was saving the world all over again, I never stopped looking for you."

"Rikku said you thought he was me. You both did."

"Well, if you watch the sphere, you'll know why."

He sighed deeply. "Yeah. I guess... That's the only way I'll understand, right?"

"It'll be a start, anyway." She kissed his cheek and then reached out to activate the sphere. 

Tides remained silent while the sphere played, simply watching and clutching Yuna's hand like a lifeline. When the recording finished, he set the sphere down quickly.

"I look just like him."

"Well, there are some differences," the High Summoner said. "But you can't really see them here. Now you see why we thought he was you. It gave me hope, when I didn't think there was anything left for me."

"What would you have done, if Rikku had never brought you the sphere?" Tidus asked.

"I don't know. I don't think I would have just faded away with grief the way my father did, but I didn't know how to get over losing you." She shrugged the shoulder that wasn't pressed against his arm. "I would have left the island eventually, I think, but I don't know what I would have done. Not that it matters now; we found each other again."

"Yeah, I guess so."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Hey, what's wrong with Tidus?" Rikku asked over breakfast. "He seems really down."

"He found the sphere," Yuna told her, picking at her food absently. "Now he thinks he's in some kind of competition with Shuyin."

"That's stupid," Paine said bluntly. "Shuyin's dead. And besides, you didn't spend two years trying to find Tidus just for kicks."

"And I tried to tell him that, but I don't think he was listening." The High Summoner sighed. "I don't know what else to do."

"You tell him he's being a big dumb dumbhead," the Al-Bhed said. "And the you drag him off and get married."

"I doubt it'll be that easy," the warrior woman told the blonde. "But you're probably right about telling him he's being dumb."

"Oh yes. I will absolutely tell the love of my life he's dumb. That'll go over just fine." Yuna gave her friends a flat stare. "If you guys can't be helpful, can we not talk about this at all please."

"Sure," Rikku assured her cousin. "But you _do_ have to talk to him. He'll just keep going around being dumb otherwise."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"You know," Tidus said as they fought their way through another group of fiends, "When you said you were a sphere hunter, I was really imagining more ruined temples and fewer monsters."

"You should know Spira well enough by now to know that ruined temples are the perfect place to find monsters, though." Yuna grinned as she darted forward and slashed through a coeurl.

"Yeah, well, I guess I had some time to forget."

"You'll have plenty of time to refresh your memory with the Gullwings."

"Yeah, about that." Tidus leaped up and stabbed downward into the coeurl she had damaged. "Luca wants me to play blitzball for them."

"Really? I would have thought Wakka and the Aurochs would have tried to recruit you first." Yuna dodged out of the way as the coeurl tried to lash her with its tentacles. Its companion, a wild wolf, used her moment of distraction to take a bite out of her arm. "Ow!"

"Yuna!" The blitzball player charged the wolf, stabbing deeply into the soft tissues of its stomach and dispatching it in a flurry of pyreflies. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." She pulled out a potion and poured it over the wound. "So, no Aurochs?"

The coeurl turned and ran away as Tidus readied another attack. 

"No. I mean, not yet anyway. If they asked, I'd play for them in a heartbeat. Wakka and the guys aren't really bad players, they just never had a good coach." The blond man tucked his sword away. "Will it bother you if I play for Luca?"

"Well, I haven't lived in a big city since before my father died, so there would be a little adjusting, but no. I want you to be happy and playing blitzball always makes you happy." The brunette tucked away her own sword and stepped close enough to her former guardian to take his hand. "If that means signing on for Luca or creating your own team, I'll be right here with you."

"What if I wanted to destroy the world?"

"You wouldn't. But if you did, I can take you in a fight." Yuna used their linked hands to pull him into a hug. "You aren't Shuyin, and I know that."

Tidus relaxed fractionally and hugged her back. "Thanks."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"So tell me about him," Tidus said as they were packing up the belongings in Yuna's small hut on the island. "Was he really that much like me?"

"Well, I think the Fayth gave you a lot of his traits, but you're not the same person. He loved his Summoner so much that he was willing to do anything to save her, though." She looked up and gave him a smile. "And he was a good person, despite what happened after he became an Unsent."

"How did he die?"

"He was caught trying to steal Vegnagun so that he could end the war. Lenne found him just before the guards did, but they were both executed on the spot. Even back then, Yevon worried more about protecting their secrets than justice."

"No wonder he was so angry. I think I would have been too." The blond smiled ruefully. "I don't think I would have tried to steal it _again_ and use it to destroy the world, but I definitely would have done some stuff I'd regret if I you had died like that."

"I'm glad we never had to find out."

"Me too."


End file.
